The creative team behind Give Me Liberty says the feature film is for Milwaukee, by Milwaukee and about Milwaukee.
Alice Austen has some impeccable Milwaukee credentials. She’s a descendant of one of the earliest European settlers of the city. And more recently, her forebears made bottles for beer made here.
But Austen, who grew up in Oregon, became an award-winning playwright. And her most recent work is an adaptation of Animal Farm at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.
She’s partnered with Cannes award-winning film director Kirill Mikhanovsky – whose ties to Milwaukee are deep but much more recent. He’s a Russian-Jewish immigrant who came here just over 20 years ago.
And the film they’re working on is based on Mikhanovsky’s experiences as a new arrival to Milwaukee.
Alice Austen is the screenwriter and Kirill Mikhanovsky is the director of the film-in-progress, Give Me Liberty. They recently joined Lake Effect's Bonnie North to chat.
The Kickstarter link for the film is here.
